


tremble with it

by zauberer_sirin



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Coulson being the most supportive human guy, Dancing, Director Daisy Johnson, Drabble, F/M, Future Fic, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-10 05:23:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12904992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zauberer_sirin/pseuds/zauberer_sirin
Summary: Director Johnson gets invited to a fancy gala and she needs dancing lessons.





	tremble with it

Coulson laughs - he has to laugh.

“What?” Daisy asks. Then she tilts her head, annoyed. “Am I doing this super wrong?”

He shakes his head, squeezing her fingers as they stand like this, facing each other, Daisy’s hand on his shoulder.

“It’s been fifteen minutes since we started and you’ve already got this,” he says.

She smiles shyly and looks away. “Well, thanks.”

He should have known. He’s never known anyone who picks up things faster than Daisy Johnson, or works harder at learning. She came to him this morning, admitting she didn’t know how to dance, worried about her first big UN gala as representative of the Inhuman people. It wasn’t a stupid worry, he told her. He knew how fancy these things could get, and he knew how much Daisy worked to present a smooth front in public. _I wouldn’t want it to reflect badly on SHIELD, either_ she told Coulson. But he knew it was more personal than that. A deep-seated fear of people ridiculing her. Coulson knew about her childhood, and though bullying from her peers was the lightest of her worries at the time, she is clearly anxious about looking bad in public. Coulson was only too happy to help soothe that a bit (and was secretly flattered that Daisy thought of him). He had cleared the whole afternoon and a training room at the base, but it’s obvious they’re not going to need it that long.

“I should have known,” he tells her.

“What?”

“That you’d mastered every move in a few minutes,” he explains. “After all you cleared the test to become an ops agent in record time.”

They’re standing close and Coulson can see her face become hotter in a moment.

“Record time? Sure,” she snorts.

“I wouldn’t lie about that,” he says.

She looks at him, dropping and lifting her gaze as if she wanted to check his stance. Frowning as if deciding where he’s telling the truth or not. Daisy knows he wouldn’t lie to her, but she’s hardwired to not believe good things about herself.

“Thank you,” she says.

Coulson nods.

“Though…” he adds, swaying them a bit to the music that it’s still playing. “I’m a bit disappointed you’re so quick. I was enjoying myself.”

Daisy chuckles.

“Me too,” she says with an open honest smile.

They continue dancing for a bit. Daisy already has the knack of it, and now it just seems that, that they’re… dancing. Coulson thinks it’s been a while since he danced for something other than a mission, then he remembers this is kind of a mission. Though not really, he’s helping out a friend at her request. But still. Still not real, he guesses.

Daisy sighs with frustration. He questions her with his eyebrows.

“It’s just that…” she says. “I wish the UN would let me bring a plus one to this thing.”

He’s flattered again. A part of Coulson knows that he is Daisy’s favorite person, and it humbles him.

“So do I,” he tells her.

“I bet their music is not half as good as yours,” she tells him.

“It won’t be,” Coulson agrees, proud. 

“The dress I bought is nice, though,” she says.

He wonders if she wants him to inquire, to say he’d like to see her in that dress.

(he’d like to see her in that dress)

He makes a non-committal positive noise just in case.

“And I won’t get a better dancing partner,” Daisy adds. “Thank you for this.”

“You’re welcome.”

The record ends. Daisy’s hands leave his hand, his shoulder. An unexpectedly painful vacuum instead. She puts her hands in the pockets of her jeans, drops her gaze to the floor.

“I guess I’m read now,” she says, sounding so sad.

Coulson thinks she’s getting at something, but he’s afraid of being wrong, after all these years, after whatever it is between them. The air crackles around him, he thinks it’s so fraught between them, he thinks it’s making him tremble, then he realizes he’s hearing the needle of his record player wandering over empty tracks. He wants to laugh, it’s so wonderfully juvenile.

“Maybe you’d like to do this again,” he says. “For real this time.”

“You mean that?” Daisy asks. He nods. “I’d like that.”

She’s lit up and Coulson feels a little guilty, because he could have given her such joy before today. He could have done this early. If he even knows what _this_ even is.

(he knows, it’s dancing, it’s trembling)


End file.
